Will.i.am: Women With Condoms Are Tacky

The Counterproductive Commentary of the Week Award goes to Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am. ColorLines reports that the singer was "picked apart" by advocates when readers got ahold of the May issue of Elle magazine. In it he shares in an interview that he thinks women who have condoms in their homes are "tacky":

Elle: If you walked into a woman's house, what one item would convince you that you weren't compatible?

W: If she had condoms in her house, that would just f[---]in' throw me off. That's just tacky.

Elle: Well, okay, I could see if she had a candy bowl full of them on the coffee table. But if she's got a few in a drawer, wouldn't that simply suggest she's health-conscious?

W: I just think, like, if you're into someone and you guys get to that level, then that's something you should converse about together and say, "Hey, maybe we should get some."

His comments -- which completely fail to account for the all-too-common scenario in which people who don't have the foresight to purchase condoms end up having unprotected sex without being "into someone," getting "to that level" or "convers[ing]" about the issue -- have enraged HIV and sexual-health advocates, as well as those concerned with preventing unwanted pregnancies (not to mention, most people with common sense).

We respect the singer's distaste for a cavalier attitude toward casual sex, but his "If you don't have condoms around, you'll never do it" attitude reminds us of the detached-from-reality views of abstinence-only sex-education advocates. Both put people at risk for things that are much worse than just "tacky."